Ammon Lane
Rank: Sergeant, U.S. Army
Unit: 2nd Cavalry Regiment
Entered service from: New Jersey
Died:
Ammon Lane, who on the Gloucester City War Memorial is listed as Amon Lane, was one of six Gloucester City men who were “Lost in Sacrifice” during the First World War. His death was among a small number that were overlooked when the book “History of Camden County in the Great War 1917–1918” was compiled in 1919, and to date this website has found few records pertaining to his civilian life, military service, or his death. He was born in New Jersey on November 4, 1885 to Daniel F. Lane and the former Harriet Wirth.
Ammon Lane appears in the 1900 Census, which states that he was born in November of 1884 and was working as a machinist. He lived with his parents, Daniel and Harriet Lane, and five siblings, at 410 Monmouth Street in Gloucester City.
Daniel Lane was a somewhat prominent citizen in Gloucester at the time, as he was the City Clerk. Besides Ammon, the family included older siblings Hilda, 18, and Daniel, 16, as well as three younger children, Leo, 14, Sarah, 10 and baby Edward, 1 year of age. Two other children had died by 1900.
Ammon Lane had worked as a machinist in his youth, and is listed in the 1907 Camden City Directory as following that trade and living at 402 Sycamore Street. He later served in the United States Navy in the late 1900s and early 1910s. It also must be noted that spelling was an inexact science in those years, and at least one man, a sailor from Camden named William F. Laskowski, served under the name “William Laskon.”
The 1910 Census shows that only Daniel Lane, now a widower, and the three younger children still lived at 410 Monmouth Street. Daniel and Leo Lane were working as pattern makers at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyards. Sarah Lane kept house while young Edward was still in school. Older brother Daniel, who worked as a bookkeeper for one of the railroads, had married and was living with his wife Martha at 424 Hunter Street in Gloucester City. By 1917 Leo Lane had married and moved to Audubon. He was still working as a patternmaker at New York Ship.
The 1910 Census shows that Ammon Lane had joined the United States Navy. He appears in the 1910 Census as Ammon L. Lane, being a prisoner at the United States Naval Prison at the Mare Island Navy Yard in California. He had been a coal passer prior to getting into trouble. In 1912, after leaving the Navy he enlisted in the United States Army. At some point he had married, however it did not last and in 1913 his wife Bessie sued for a divorce on grounds of desertion. The decree was granted in 1914. Still in the Army in 1917 when the United States made its entry into World War I, Ammon Lane served in France as a sergeant, and somehow became attached to a Vermont-based cavalry troop of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the only U.S. Cavalry to see combat in France during the war, as it was soon noted that horses and trench warfare were incompatible.
A provisional squadron of 418 officers and enlisted men, representing the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, and mounted on convalescent horses, was created to serve as scouts and couriers during the St. Mihiel Offensive. On September 11, 1918, these troops rode at night through no man’s land and penetrated five miles behind German lines. Once there, the cavalry was routed and had to return to Allied territory. Despite serving through the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, by mid-October the squadron was removed from the front with only 150 of its men remaining.
Family history and a newspaper article published long after his death say that Ammon Lane had been gassed. What is known is that he fell ill in France, was returned to the United States to Ellis Island in New York. On January 15, 1919 he died of bronchial pneumonia at the government hospital on Ellis Island. Whether this was brought on as a result of gas, the influenza pandemic, or other reasons is not known.
The 1920 Census and later records show that older brother Daniel Lane remained in Gloucester City, where by 1947 he was, as his father before him, City Clerk. He and wife Martha had at least six children. Younger brother Edward had moved to Philadelphia by January of 1920. Leo Lane passed away in 1978, last a resident of Haverford, Pennsylvania.
1908 Gloucester Field Club
Named: 1908 Gloucester Field Club, Gloucester City, NJ. Neil L. Jamieson, Ben Batten, Howard Miller, Henry Evans, Vernon Jones, Clifford Zane, Ernest Barrett, Ammon Lane, Raymond D. Adams, and Daniel Batezel..
1900 Census
1900 Census record for the Lane family at 410 Monmouth Street, Gloucester City, NJ.
1910 Census
1910 Census record showing Ammon Lane as a prisoner at the United States Naval Prison, Mare Island Navy Yard, California.
In Chancery of New Jersey
Camden Daily Courier —
IN CHANCERY OF NEW JERSEY.
To Ammon Lane:
By virtue of an order of the Court of Chancery of New Jersey, made on the day of the date hereof, in a certain cause wherein Bessie M. Lane is petitioner, and you are defendant, you are required to appear, and plead, answer or demur to petitioner’s petition on or before the sixteenth day of September next, or, in default thereof, such decree will be taken against you as the chancellor shall think equitable and just.
The object of said suit is to obtain a decree of divorce dissolving the marriage between you and the said petitioner.
Dated July 15th, 1913. WESCOTT & WESCOTT, Solicitors of Petitioner, P. O. address 301 Market St., Camden, N. J.
Mrs. Lane Divorced
Camden Post-Telegram —
Mrs. Lane Divorced.
Mrs. Bessie M. Lane, of this city, has been granted a divorce from her husband Ammon Lane. The charge was desertion. She was represented by Lawyers Wescott & Wescott.
Amon Lane Dies at Ellis Island
Camden Post-Telegram —
Amon Lane, 33 years old, son of former City Clerk Daniel F. Lane, died on Monday at Ellis Island, from bronchial pneumonia. The young man joined the Army just before this country entered the war and was made a member of the Vermont Cavalry. He was sent to France and was in that country six months and two weeks. He was in the back lines at Alsace-Lorraine when he developed pneumonia and was brought to Ellis Island six weeks ago along with other sick and wounded. His body will be brought to the home of his brother, Daniel Lane, Jr., 424 Hunter street, from where the funeral will be held to-morrow morning. Interment will be made in St. Mary’s Cemetery.
Ammon Lane Dead at Ellis Island
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Ammon Lane Dead at Ellis Island
GLOUCESTER, N. J., Jan. 18.—Ammon Lane, 33 years old, son of former City Clerk Daniel F. Lane, died yesterday at the government hospital, Ellis Island, N. Y., from bronchial pneumonia, which he developed on the battlefield in France. The young man was one of the first to enlist in United States Army before the United States entered the war and was a sergeant with the Vermont cavalry. (Note: The January 18 date on the article is a typographical error.)
Amon Lane’s Funeral
Camden Post-Telegram —
Amon Lane’s Funeral.
The funeral of Amon Lane, the young man who died from bronchial pneumonia which he developed on the battlefield in France, took place this morning from the home of his brother, Daniel J. Lane, on Hunter street, and was well attended. Several members of the State Militia acted as an escort for the body. High mass was celebrated in St. Mary’s Church and interment made in St. Mary’s Cemetery.
Veterans at Gloucester Will Decorate Six Trees
Camden Courier-Post —
Gloucester Post No. 135, American Legion, and auxiliary, assisted by Sons of Veterans and various other patriotic and civic associations, will dedicate six Japanese cherry blossom trees to the memory of six war dead, as part of their Memorial Day rites.
The trees will be planted at the county park and set apart officially with six markers, one for each memorial arbor. The trees were purchased by the Legion and the markers by the Auxiliary. The men to be honored are:
William M. Hickman, Company B, 145th Infantry, killed by machine gun bullets while taking part in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, September 28, 1918.
Sergeant Fred H. Baines, and Townsend C. Young, both of Company G, 114th Infantry, felled by bullets from machine guns and Argonne Forest, October 12, 1918.
John J. Sheldon, Battery A, 126th Field Artillery, died in the Third Scottish-General Hospital, Glasgow, October 14, 1918.
David Barnaby, private first-class, Company F, 76th Heavy Field Artillery, died in Evacuation Hospital No. 8, Maven, Germany, on February 4, 1919.
Amon Lane, who had enlisted in 1812 [sic], and had renewed his enlistment on entrance to the World War, joining a mounted organization, was gassed while carrying a message through the lines, and died later in a government hospital in New York.